Media Playback System with Voice Assistance

ABSTRACT

Example techniques involve invoking voice assistance for a media playback system. In some embodiments, media playback system is configured to (i) capture a voice input via at least one microphone device, (ii) detect inclusion of one or more of the commands within the voice input, (iii) determine that the one or more commands meets corresponding command criteria associated with the one or more commands within the set of command information, and (iv) in response to the determination, select a first voice assistant service (VAS) and (a) forego selection of a second VAS, (b) send the voice input to first VAS, and (c) after sending the voice input, receiving a response to the voice input from the first VAS.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The disclosure is related to consumer goods and, more particularly, tomethods, systems, products, features, services, and other elementsdirected to voice control of media playback or some aspect thereof.

BACKGROUND

Options for accessing and listening to digital audio in an out-loudsetting were limited until in 2003, when SONOS, Inc. filed for one ofits first patent applications, entitled “Method for Synchronizing AudioPlayback between Multiple Networked Devices,” and began offering a mediaplayback system for sale in 2005. The Sonos Wireless HiFi System enablespeople to experience music from many sources via one or more networkedplayback devices. Through a software control application installed on asmartphone, tablet, or computer, one can play what he or she wants inany room that has a networked playback device. Additionally, using thecontroller, for example, different songs can be streamed to each roomwith a playback device, rooms can be grouped together for synchronousplayback, or the same song can be heard in all rooms synchronously.

Given the ever-growing interest in digital media, there continues to bea need to develop consumer-accessible technologies to further enhancethe listening experience.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Features, aspects, and advantages of the presently disclosed technologymay be better understood with regard to the following description,appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1 shows a media playback system in which certain embodiments may bepracticed;

FIG. 2A is a functional block diagram of an example playback device;

FIG. 2B is a isometric diagram of an example playback device thatincludes a network microphone device;

FIGS. 3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, and 3E are diagrams showing example zones and zonegroups in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of an example controller device inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 4A and 4B are controller interfaces in accordance with aspects ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 5A is a functional block diagram of an example network microphonedevice in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 5B is a diagram of an example voice input in accordance withaspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram of example remote computingdevice(s) in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram of an example network system inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 7B is an example message flow implemented by the example networksystem of FIG. 7A in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 8A is a flow diagram of an example method for invoking a voiceassistant service in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIG. 8B is a block diagram of an example set of command information inaccordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 9A, 9B, and 9C are tables with example voice input commands andassociated information in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 11A and 11B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 12A and 12B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 13A and 13B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 14A and 14B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 15A and 15B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 16A and 16B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 17A and 17B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 18A and 18B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure;

FIGS. 19A and 19B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure; and

FIGS. 20A and 20B are diagrams showing example voice inputs for invokinga VAS in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.

The drawings are for purposes of illustrating example embodiments, butit is understood that the inventions are not limited to the arrangementsand instrumentality shown in the drawings. In the drawings, identicalreference numbers identify at least generally similar elements. Tofacilitate the discussion of any particular element, the mostsignificant digit or digits of any reference number refers to the Figurein which that element is first introduced. For example, element 107 isfirst introduced and discussed with reference to FIG. 1.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. Overview

Voice control can be beneficial for a “smart” home having smartappliances and related devices, such as wireless illumination devices,home-automation devices (e.g., thermostats, door locks, etc.), and audioplayback devices. In some implementations, networked microphone devicesmay be used to control smart home devices. A network microphone devicewill typically include a microphone for receiving voice inputs. Thenetwork microphone device can forward voice inputs to a voice assistantservice (VAS). A traditional VAS may be a remote service implemented bycloud servers to process voice inputs. A VAS may process a voice inputto determine an intent of the voice input. Based on the response, thenetwork microphone device may cause one or more smart devices to performan action. For example, the network microphone device may instruct anillumination device to turn on/off based on the response to theinstruction from the VAS.

A voice input detected by a network microphone device will typicallyinclude a wake word followed by an utterance containing a user request.The wake word is typically a predetermined word or phrase used to “wakeup” and invoke the VAS for interpreting the intent of the voice input.For instance, in querying the AMAZON® VAS, a user might speak the wakeword “Alexa.” Other examples include “Ok, Google” for invoking theGOOGLE® VAS and “Hey, Siri” for invoking the APPLE® VAS, or “Hey, Sonos”for a VAS offered by SONOS®.

A network microphone device listens for a user request or commandaccompanying a wake word in the voice input. In some instances, the userrequest may include a command to control a third-party device, such as athermostat (e.g., NEST® thermostat), an illumination device (e.g., aPHILIPS HUE® lighting device), or a media playback device (e.g., aSonos® playback device). For example, a user might speak the wake word“Alexa” followed by the utterance “set the thermostat to 68 degrees” toset the temperature in a home using the Amazon® VAS. A user might speakthe same wake word followed by the utterance “turn on the living room”to turn on illumination devices in a living room area of the home. Theuser may similarly speak a wake word followed by a request to play aparticular song, an album, or a playlist of music on a playback devicein the home.

A VAS may employ natural language understanding (NLU) systems to processvoice inputs. NLU systems typically require multiple remote servers thatare programmed to detect the underlying intent of a given voice input.For example, the servers may maintain a lexicon of language; parsers;grammar and semantic rules; and associated processing algorithms todetermine the user's intent.

One challenge encountered by traditional VASes is that NLU processing iscomputationally intensive. For example, voice processing algorithms needto be regularly updated for handling nuances in parlance, sentencestructure, pronunciation, and other speech characteristics. As such,providers of VASes must maintain and continually develop processingalgorithms and deploy an increasing number of resources, such asadditional cloud servers, to handle the myriad voice inputs that arereceived from users all over the world.

A related challenge is that voice control of certain smart devices mayrequire relatively complex voice processing algorithms, which canfurther tax VAS resources. For example, to switch on a set ofillumination devices in a living room, one user may prefer to say, “flipon the lights,” while another user may prefer to say, “turn on theliving room.” Both users have the same underlying intent to turn onillumination devices, but the structure of the phrases, including theverbs, are different, not to mention that the latter phrase identifiesdevices in the living room, while the former does not. To address theseissues, VASes must dedicate further resources to decipher user intent,particularly when controlling smart devices that require complex voiceprocessing resources and algorithms, such as algorithms fordistinguishing between subtle yet meaningful variations in commandstructure and related syntax.

As consumer demand for smart devices grows and these devices become morevariegated, certain VAS providers may be hard-pressed to keep up withdevelopments. In some cases, VASes may have limited system resources,which diminishes a VAS's ability to successfully respond to inboundvoice inputs. For instance, in the example above, a VAS may have theability to process the voice utterance to “turn on the lights,” but maylack the ability to process a voice utterance to “flip on the lights”because the service may use algorithms that cannot recognize the intentbehind the more idiomatic phraseology of the latter. In such a case, theuser may have to rephrase the original request with further qualifyinginformation, such as by saying “turn on the lights in the living room.”Alternately, the VAS may inform the user that it cannot process such arequest, or the VAS may simply ignore the request altogether. In any ofthese cases, users may become dissatisfied due to a poor voice-controlexperience.

In the case of media playback systems, such as multi-zone playbacksystems, a conventional VAS may be particularly limited. For example, atraditional VAS may only support voice control for rudimentary playbackor require the user to use specific and stilted phraseology to interactwith a device rather than natural dialogue. Further, a traditional VASmay not support multi-zone playback or other features that a user wishesto control, such as device grouping, multi-room volume, equalizationparameters, and/or audio content for a given playback scenario.Controlling such functions may require significantly more resourcesbeyond those needed for rudimentary playback.

Media playback systems described herein can address these and otherlimitations of traditional VASes. For example, in some embodiments, amedia playback is configured to select a first VAS (e.g., an enhancedVAS) over a second VAS (e.g., a traditional VAS) to process voiceinputs. In such a case, the media playback system may intervene byselecting the first VAS over the second to process certain voice inputs,such as voice inputs for controlling relatively advanced and otherfeatures of a media playback system. In one aspect, the first VAS mayenhance voice control relative to voice control provided by the secondVAS alone. In some embodiments, at least some voice inputs targeting amedia playback system may not be invokable via the second VAS. In theseand other embodiments, at least some voice inputs may be invokable viathe second VAS, but it may be preferable for the first VAS to processcertain voice inputs. For example, the first VAS may process certainrequests more reliably and accurately than the second VAS. In someembodiments, the second VAS may be a default VAS to which certain typesof voice inputs are typically sent. For example, in some embodiments, atraditional VAS may be better suited to handle requests involvinggeneric Internet queries, such as a voice input that says, “tell metoday's weather.” In related embodiments, a user may use the same wakework (e.g., “Hey Samantha”) when invoking either of the first and secondVASes. In one aspect, may be unaware that a selection of one VAS overanother is occurring behind the scenes when uttering voice input. In oneembodiments, the wake work may be a wake word associated with atraditional VAS, such as AMAZON's ALEXA®.

In one embodiment, a media playback system may include a networkmicrophone device configured to capture a voice input. The mediaplayback system is configured to (i) capture a voice input via the atleast one microphone device, (ii) detect inclusion of one or more of thecommands within the captured voice input, (iii) determine that the oneor more commands meets corresponding command criteria in a set ofcommand information, and (iv) in response to the determination, (a)select the first (VAS) and forego selection of a second VAS, (b) sendthe voice input to the first VAS, and (c) after sending the voice input,process a response to the voice input from the first VAS.

In some embodiments, the network microphone device is configured tostore a set of command information in local memory of the networkmicrophone device. In some embodiments, the set of command informationmay be stored on another network device, such as another networkmicrophone device or playback device on a local area network (LAN). Insome embodiments, the set of command information may be stored acrossmultiple network devices on a LAN and/or remotely. In variousembodiments described below, a set of command information may be used ina process to determine if the media playback system should select thefirst VAS and forego selection of the second VAS.

In some embodiments, the network microphone device may store a listingof predetermined commands and command criteria associated with thecommands. The commands may include, for example, playback, control, andzone targeting commands. The command criteria can include, for example,predetermined keywords associated with specific commands. A combinationof keywords in a voice input may include, for example, the utterance ofthe name of first room in a home (e.g., the living room) and theutterance of the name of a second room in the home (e.g., the bedroom).When a user speaks a voice input that includes a specific command (suchas a command to play music) in combination with the keywords, the mediaplayback system selects and invokes the first VAS for processing thevoice input.

In some embodiments, the keywords may be developed by training andadaptive learning algorithms. In certain embodiments, such keywords maybe determined on the fly while processing a voice input that includesthe keywords. In such cases, the keywords are not predetermined beforeprocessing the voice input, but may nevertheless enable the first VAS tobe invoked based on the command. In related embodiments, the keywordsmay be associated with certain cognates of the command having the sameintent.

In some embodiments, invoking the first VAS may include sending thevoice input to one or more remote servers of the first VAS. In theexample above, the first VAS may determine the user's intent to play inthe first and second rooms and respond by directing the media playbacksystem to play the desired audio in the first and second rooms. Thefirst VAS may also instruct the media playback system to form a groupthat comprises the first and second rooms.

While some embodiments described herein may refer to functions performedby given actors such as “users” and/or other entities, it should beunderstood that this description is for purposes of explanation only.The claims should not be interpreted to require action by any suchexample actor unless explicitly required by the language of the claimsthemselves.

II. Example Operating Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an example configuration of a media playback system100 in which one or more embodiments disclosed herein may beimplemented. The media playback system 100 as shown is associated withan example home environment having several rooms and spaces, such as forexample, an office, a dining room, and a living room. Within these roomsand spaces, the media playback system 100 includes playback devices 102(identified individually as playback devices 102 a-102 m), networkmicrophone devices 103 (identified individually as “NMD(s)” 103 a-103g), and controller devices 104 a and 104 b (collectively “controllerdevices 104”). The home environment may include other network devices,such as one or more smart illumination devices 108 and a smartthermostat 110.

The various playback, network microphone, and controller devices 102-104and/or other network devices of the media playback system 100 may becoupled to one another via point-to-point connections and/or over otherconnections, which may be wired and/or wireless, via a LAN including anetwork router 106. For example, the playback device 102 j (designatedas “Left”) may have a point-to-point connection with the playback device102 a (designated as “Right”). In one embodiment, the Left playbackdevice 102 j may communicate over the point-to-point connection with theRight playback device 102 a. In a related embodiment, the Left playbackdevice 102 j may communicate with other network devices via thepoint-to-point connection and/or other connections via the LAN.

The network router 106 may be coupled to one or more remote computingdevice(s) 105 via a wide area network (WAN) 107. In some embodiments,the remote computing device(s) may be cloud servers. The remotecomputing device(s) 105 may be configured to interact with the mediaplayback system 100 in various ways. For example, the remote computingdevice(s) may be configured to facilitate streaming and controllingplayback of media content, such as audio, in the home environment. Inone aspect of the technology described in greater detail below, theremote computing device(s) 105 are configured to provide a first VAS 160for the media playback system 100.

In some embodiments, one or more of the playback devices 102 may includean on-board (e.g., integrated) network microphone device. For example,the playback devices 102 a-e include corresponding NMDs 103 a-e,respectively. Playback devices that include network microphone devicesmay be referred to herein interchangeably as a playback device or anetwork microphone device unless indicated otherwise in the description.

In some embodiments, one or more of the NMDs 103 may be a stand-alonedevice. For example, the NMDs 103 f and 103 g may be stand-alone networkmicrophone devices. A stand-alone network microphone device may omitcomponents typically included in a playback device, such as a speaker orrelated electronics. In such cases, a stand-alone network microphonedevice may not produce audio output or may produce limited audio output(e.g., relatively low-quality audio output).

In use, a network microphone device may receive and process voice inputsfrom a user in its vicinity. For example, a network microphone devicemay capture a voice input upon detection of the user speaking the input.In the illustrated example, the NMD 103 a of the playback device 102 ain the Living Room may capture the voice input of a user in itsvicinity. In some instances, other network microphone devices (e.g., theNMDs 103 b and 103 f)in the vicinity of the voice input source (e.g.,the user) may also detect the voice input. In such instances, networkmicrophone devices may arbitrate between one another to determine whichdevice(s) should capture and/or process the detected voice input.Examples for selecting and arbitrating between network microphonedevices may be found, for example, in U.S. application Ser. No.15/438,749 filed Feb. 21, 2017, and titled “Voice Control of a MediaPlayback System,” which is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

In certain embodiments, a network microphone device may be assigned to aplayback device that may not include a network microphone device. Forexample, the NMD 103 f may be assigned to the playback devices 102 iand/or 102 l in its vicinity. In a related example, a network microphonedevice may output audio through a playback device to which it isassigned. Additional details regarding associating network microphonedevices and playback devices as designated or default devices may befound, for example, in previously referenced U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 15/438,749.

Further aspects relating to the different components of the examplemedia playback system 100 and how the different components may interactto provide a user with a media experience may be found in the followingsections. While discussions herein may generally refer to the examplemedia playback system 100, technologies described herein are not limitedto applications within, among other things, the home environment asshown in FIG. 1. For instance, the technologies described herein may beuseful in other home environment configurations comprising more or fewerof any of the playback, network microphone, and/or controller devices102-104. Additionally, the technologies described herein may be usefulin environments where multi-zone audio may be desired, such as, forexample, a commercial setting like a restaurant, mall or airport, avehicle like a sports utility vehicle (SUV), bus or car, a ship or boat,an airplane, and so on.

a. Example Playback and Network Microphone Devices

FIG. 2A is a functional block diagram illustrating certain aspects of aselected one of the playback devices 102 shown in FIG. 1. As shown, sucha playback device may include a processor 212, software components 214,memory 216, audio processing components 218, audio amplifier(s) 220,speaker(s) 222, and a network interface 230 including wirelessinterface(s) 232 and wired interface(s) 234. In some embodiments, aplayback device may not include the speaker(s) 222, but rather a speakerinterface for connecting the playback device to external speakers. Incertain embodiments, the playback device may include neither thespeaker(s) 222 nor the audio amplifier(s) 222, but rather an audiointerface for connecting a playback device to an external audioamplifier or audio-visual receiver.

A playback device may further include a user interface 236. The userinterface 236 may facilitate user interactions independent of or inconjunction with one or more of the controller devices 104. In variousembodiments, the user interface 236 includes one or more of physicalbuttons and/or graphical interfaces provided on touch sensitivescreen(s) and/or surface(s), among other possibilities, for a user todirectly provide input. The user interface 236 may further include oneor more of lights and the speaker(s) to provide visual and/or audiofeedback to a user.

In some embodiments, the processor 212 may be a clock-driven computingcomponent configured to process input data according to instructionsstored in the memory 216. The memory 216 may be a tangiblecomputer-readable medium configured to store instructions executable bythe processor 212. For example, the memory 216 may be data storage thatcan be loaded with one or more of the software components 214 executableby the processor 212 to achieve certain functions. In one example, thefunctions may involve a playback device retrieving audio data from anaudio source or another playback device. In another example, thefunctions may involve a playback device sending audio data to anotherdevice on a network. In yet another example, the functions may involvepairing of a playback device with one or more other playback devices tocreate a multi-channel audio environment.

Certain functions may involve a playback device synchronizing playbackof audio content with one or more other playback devices. Duringsynchronous playback, a listener may not perceive time-delay differencesbetween playback of the audio content by the synchronized playbackdevices. U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,395 filed Apr. 4, 2004, and titled “Systemand method for synchronizing operations among a plurality ofindependently clocked digital data processing devices,” which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety, provides in more detail someexamples for audio playback synchronization among playback devices.

The audio processing components 218 may include one or moredigital-to-analog converters (DAC), an audio preprocessing component, anaudio enhancement component or a digital signal processor (DSP), and soon. In some embodiments, one or more of the audio processing components218 may be a subcomponent of the processor 212. In one example, audiocontent may be processed and/or intentionally altered by the audioprocessing components 218 to produce audio signals. The produced audiosignals may then be provided to the audio amplifier(s) 210 foramplification and playback through speaker(s) 212. Particularly, theaudio amplifier(s) 210 may include devices configured to amplify audiosignals to a level for driving one or more of the speakers 212. Thespeaker(s) 212 may include an individual transducer (e.g., a “driver”)or a complete speaker system involving an enclosure with one or moredrivers. A particular driver of the speaker(s) 212 may include, forexample, a subwoofer (e.g., for low frequencies), a mid-range driver(e.g., for middle frequencies), and/or a tweeter (e.g., for highfrequencies). In some cases, each transducer in the one or more speakers212 may be driven by an individual corresponding audio amplifier of theaudio amplifier(s) 210. In addition to producing analog signals forplayback, the audio processing components 208 may be configured toprocess audio content to be sent to one or more other playback devicesfor playback.

Audio content to be processed and/or played back by a playback devicemay be received from an external source, such as via an audio line-ininput connection (e.g., an auto-detecting 3.5 mm audio line-inconnection) or the network interface 230.

The network interface 230 may be configured to facilitate a data flowbetween a playback device and one or more other devices on a datanetwork. As such, a playback device may be configured to receive audiocontent over the data network from one or more other playback devices incommunication with a playback device, network devices within a localarea network, or audio content sources over a wide area network such asthe Internet. In one example, the audio content and other signalstransmitted and received by a playback device may be transmitted in theform of digital packet data containing an Internet Protocol (IP)-basedsource address and IP-based destination addresses. In such a case, thenetwork interface 230 may be configured to parse the digital packet datasuch that the data destined for a playback device is properly receivedand processed by the playback device.

As shown, the network interface 230 may include wireless interface(s)232 and wired interface(s) 234. The wireless interface(s) 232 mayprovide network interface functions for a playback device to wirelesslycommunicate with other devices (e.g., other playback device(s),speaker(s), receiver(s), network device(s), control device(s) within adata network the playback device is associated with) in accordance witha communication protocol (e.g., any wireless standard including IEEE802.11a, 802.11b, 802.11g, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.15, 4G mobilecommunication standard, and so on). The wired interface(s) 234 mayprovide network interface functions for a playback device to communicateover a wired connection with other devices in accordance with acommunication protocol (e.g., IEEE 802.3). While the network interface230 shown in FIG. 2A includes both wireless interface(s) 232 and wiredinterface(s) 234, the network interface 230 may in some embodimentsinclude only wireless interface(s) or only wired interface(s).

As discussed above, a playback device may include a network microphonedevice, such as one of the NMDs 103 shown in FIG. 1. A networkmicrophone device may share some or all the components of a playbackdevice, such as the processor 212, the memory 216, the microphone(s)224, etc. In other examples, a network microphone device includescomponents that are dedicated exclusively to operational aspects of thenetwork microphone device. For example, a network microphone device mayinclude far-field microphones and/or voice processing components, whichin some instances a playback device may not include. In another example,a network microphone device may include a touch-sensitive button forenabling/disabling a microphone. In yet another example, a networkmicrophone device can be a stand-alone device, as discussed above. FIG.2B is an isometric diagram showing an example playback device 202incorporating a network microphone device. The playback device 202 has acontrol area 237 at the top of the device for enabling/disablingmicrophone(s). The control area 237 is adjacent another area 239 at thetop of the device for controlling playback.

By way of illustration, SONOS, Inc. presently offers (or has offered)for sale certain playback devices including a “PLAY:1,” “PLAY:3,”“PLAY:5,” “PLAYBAR,” “CONNECT:AMP,” “CONNECT,” and “SUB.” Any otherpast, present, and/or future playback devices may additionally oralternatively be used to implement the playback devices of exampleembodiments disclosed herein. Additionally, it is understood that aplayback device is not limited to the example illustrated in FIG. 2A orto the SONOS product offerings. For example, a playback device mayinclude a wired or wireless headphone. In another example, a playbackdevice may include or interact with a docking station for personalmobile media playback devices. In yet another example, a playback devicemay be integral to another device or component such as a television, alighting fixture, or some other device for indoor or outdoor use.

b. Example Playback Device Configurations

FIGS. 3A-3E show example configurations of playback devices in zones andzone groups. Referring first to FIG. 3E, in one example, a singleplayback device may belong to a zone. For example, the playback device102 c in the Balcony may belong to Zone A. In some implementationsdescribed below, multiple playback devices may be “bonded” to form a“bonded pair” which together form a single zone. For example, theplayback device 102 f named Nook in FIG. 1 may be bonded to the playbackdevice 102 g named Wall to form Zone B. Bonded playback devices may havedifferent playback responsibilities (e.g., channel responsibilities). Inanother implementation described below, multiple playback devices may bemerged to form a single zone. For example, the playback device 102 dnamed Office may be merged with the playback device 102 m named Windowto form a single Zone C. The merged playback devices 102 d and 102 m maynot be specifically assigned different playback responsibilities. Thatis, the merged playback devices 102 d and 102 m may, aside from playingaudio content in synchrony, each play audio content as they would ifthey were not merged.

Each zone in the media playback system 100 may be provided for controlas a single user interface (UI) entity. For example, Zone A may beprovided as a single entity named Balcony. Zone C may be provided as asingle entity named Office. Zone B may be provided as a single entitynamed Shelf.

In various embodiments, a zone may take on the name of one of theplayback device(s) belonging to the zone. For example, Zone C may takeon the name of the Office device 102 d (as shown). In another example,Zone C may take on the name of the Window device 102 m. In a furtherexample, Zone C may take on a name that is some combination of theOffice device 102 d and Window device 102 m. The name that is chosen maybe selected by user. In some embodiments, a zone may be given a namethat is different than the device(s) belonging to the zone. For example,Zone B is named Shelf but none of the devices in Zone B have this name.

Playback devices that are bonded may have different playbackresponsibilities, such as responsibilities for certain audio channels.For example, as shown in FIG. 3A, the Nook and Wall devices 102 f and102 g may be bonded so as to produce or enhance a stereo effect of audiocontent. In this example, the Nook playback device 102 f may beconfigured to play a left channel audio component, while the Wallplayback device 102 g may be configured to play a right channel audiocomponent. In some implementations, such stereo bonding may be referredto as “pairing.”

Additionally, bonded playback devices may have additional and/ordifferent respective speaker drivers. As shown in FIG. 3B, the playbackdevice 102 b named Front may be bonded with the playback device 102 knamed SUB. The Front device 102 b may render a range of mid to highfrequencies and the SUB device 102 k may render low frequencies as,e.g., a subwoofer. When unbonded, the Front device 102 b may render afull range of frequencies. As another example, FIG. 3C shows the Frontand SUB devices 102 b and 102 k further bonded with Right and Leftplayback devices 102 a and 102 k, respectively. In some implementations,the Right and Left devices 102 a and 102 k may form surround or“satellite” channels of a home theatre system. The bonded playbackdevices 102 a, 102 b, 102 j, and 102 k may form a single Zone D (FIG.3E).

Playback devices that are merged may not have assigned playbackresponsibilities, and may each render the full range of audio contentthe respective playback device is capable of Nevertheless, mergeddevices may be represented as a single UI entity (i.e., a zone, asdiscussed above). For instance, the playback device 102 d and 102 m inthe Office have the single UI entity of Zone C. In one embodiment, theplayback devices 102 d and 102 m may each output the full range of audiocontent each respective playback device 102 d and 102 m are capable of,in synchrony.

In some embodiments, a stand-alone network microphone device may be in azone by itself. For example, the NMD 103 g in FIG. 1 named Ceiling maybe Zone E. A network microphone device may also be bonded or merged withanother device so as to form a zone. For example, the NMD device 103 fnamed Island may be bonded with the playback device 102 i Kitchen, whichtogether form Zone G, which is also named Kitchen. Additional detailsregarding associating network microphone devices and playback devices asdesignated or default devices may be found, for example, in previouslyreferenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749. In someembodiments, a stand-alone network microphone device may not beassociated with a zone.

Zones of individual, bonded, and/or merged devices may be grouped toform a zone group. For example, referring to FIG. 3E, Zone A may begrouped with Zone B to form a zone group that includes the two zones. Asanother example, Zone A may be grouped with one or more other Zones C-I.The Zones A-I may be grouped and ungrouped in numerous ways. Forexample, three, four, five, or more (e.g., all) of the Zones A-I may begrouped. When grouped, the zones of individual and/or bonded playbackdevices may play back audio in synchrony with one another, as describedin previously referenced U.S. Pat. No. 8,234,395. Playback devices maybe dynamically grouped and ungrouped to form new or different groupsthat synchronously play back audio content.

In various implementations, the zones in an environment may be thedefault name of a zone within the group or a combination of the names ofthe zones within a zone group, such as Dining Room+Kitchen, as shown inFIG. 3E. In some embodiments, a zone group may be given a unique nameselected by a user, such as Nick's Room, as also shown in FIG. 3E.

Referring again to FIG. 2A, certain data may be stored in the memory 216as one or more state variables that are periodically updated and used todescribe the state of a playback zone, the playback device(s), and/or azone group associated therewith. The memory 216 may also include thedata associated with the state of the other devices of the media system,and shared from time to time among the devices so that one or more ofthe devices have the most recent data associated with the system.

In some embodiments, the memory may store instances of various variabletypes associated with the states. Variables instances may be stored withidentifiers (e.g., tags) corresponding to type. For example, certainidentifiers may be a first type “a1” to identify playback device(s) of azone, a second type “b1” to identify playback device(s) that may bebonded in the zone, and a third type “c1” to identify a zone group towhich the zone may belong. As a related example, in FIG. 1, identifiersassociated with the Balcony may indicate that the Balcony is the onlyplayback device of a particular zone and not in a zone group.Identifiers associated with the Living Room may indicate that the LivingRoom is not grouped with other zones but includes bonded playbackdevices 102 a, 102 b, 102 j, and 102 k. Identifiers associated with theDining Room may indicate that the Dining Room is part of DiningRoom+Kitchen group and that devices 103 f and 102 i are bonded.Identifiers associated with the Kitchen may indicate the same or similarinformation by virtue of the Kitchen being part of the DiningRoom+Kitchen zone group. Other example zone variables and identifiersare described below.

In yet another example, the media playback system 100 may variables oridentifiers representing other associations of zones and zone groups,such as identifiers associated with Areas, as shown in FIG. 3. An areamay involve a cluster of zone groups and/or zones not within a zonegroup. For instance, FIG. 3E shows a first area named Front Area and asecond area named Back Area. The Front Area includes zones and zonegroups of the Balcony, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen, and Bathroom.The Back Area includes zones and zone groups of the Bathroom, Nick'sRoom, the Bedroom, and the Office. In one aspect, an Area may be used toinvoke a cluster of zone groups and/or zones that share one or morezones and/or zone groups of another cluster. In another aspect, thisdiffers from a zone group, which does not share a zone with another zonegroup. Further examples of techniques for implementing Areas may befound, for example, in U.S. application Ser. No. 15/682,506 filed Aug.21, 2017 and titled “Room Association Based on Name,” and U.S. Pat. No.8,483,853 filed Sep. 11, 2007, and titled “Controlling and manipulatinggroupings in a multi-zone media system.” Each of these applications isincorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In some embodiments,the media playback system 100 may not implement Areas, in which case thesystem may not store variables associated with Areas.

The memory 216 may be further configured to store other data. Such datamay pertain to audio sources accessible by a playback device or aplayback queue that the playback device (or some other playbackdevice(s)) may be associated with. In embodiments described below, thememory 216 is configured to store a set of command data for selecting aparticular VAS, such as the first VAS 160, when processing voice inputs.

During operation, one or more playback zones in the environment of FIG.1 may each be playing different audio content. For instance, the usermay be grilling in the Balcony zone and listening to hip hop music beingplayed by the playback device 102 c while another user may be preparingfood in the Kitchen zone and listening to classical music being playedby the playback device 102 i. In another example, a playback zone mayplay the same audio content in synchrony with another playback zone. Forinstance, the user may be in the Office zone where the playback device102 d is playing the same hip-hop music that is being playing byplayback device 102 c in the Balcony zone. In such a case, playbackdevices 102 c and 102 d may be playing the hip-hop in synchrony suchthat the user may seamlessly (or at least substantially seamlessly)enjoy the audio content that is being played out-loud while movingbetween different playback zones. Synchronization among playback zonesmay be achieved in a manner similar to that of synchronization amongplayback devices, as described in previously referenced U.S. Pat. No.8,234,395.

As suggested above, the zone configurations of the media playback system100 may be dynamically modified. As such, the media playback system 100may support numerous configurations. For example, if a user physicallymoves one or more playback devices to or from a zone, the media playbacksystem 100 may be reconfigured to accommodate the change(s). Forinstance, if the user physically moves the playback device 102 c fromthe Balcony zone to the Office zone, the Office zone may now includeboth the playback devices 102 c and 102 d. In some cases, the use maypair or group the moved playback device 102 c with the Office zoneand/or rename the players in the Office zone using, e.g., one of thecontroller devices 104 and/or voice input. As another example, if one ormore playback devices 102 are moved to a particular area in the homeenvironment that is not already a playback zone, the moved playbackdevice(s) may be renamed or associated with a playback zone for theparticular area.

Further, different playback zones of the media playback system 100 maybe dynamically combined into zone groups or split up into individualplayback zones. For example, the Dining Room zone and the Kitchen zonemay be combined into a zone group for a dinner party such that playbackdevices 102 i and 102 l may render audio content in synchrony. Asanother example, bonded playback devices 102 in the Living Room zone maybe split into (i) a television zone and (ii) a separate listening zone.The television zone may include the Front playback device 102 b. Thelistening zone may include the Right, Left, and SUB playback devices 102a, 102 j, and 102 k, which may be grouped, paired, or merged, asdescribed above. Splitting the Living Room zone in such a manner mayallow one user to listen to music in the listening zone in one area ofthe living room space, and another user to watch the television inanother area of the living room space. In a related example, a user mayimplement either of the NMD 103 a or 103 b to control the Living Roomzone before it is separated into the television zone and the listeningzone. Once separated, the listening zone may be controlled, for example,by a user in the vicinity of the NMD 103 a, and the television zone maybe controlled, for example, by a user in the vicinity of the NMD 103 b.As described above, however, any of the NMDs 103 may be configured tocontrol the various playback and other devices of the media playbacksystem 100.

c. Example Controller Devices

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram illustrating certain aspects of aselected one of the controller devices 104 of the media playback system100 of FIG. 1. Such controller devices may also be referred to as acontroller. The controller device shown in FIG. 3 may include componentsthat are generally similar to certain components of the network devicesdescribed above, such as a processor 412, memory 416, microphone(s) 424,and a network interface 430. In one example, a controller device may bea dedicated controller for the media playback system 100. In anotherexample, a controller device may be a network device on which mediaplayback system controller application software may be installed, suchas for example, an iPhone™, iPad™ or any other smart phone, tablet ornetwork device (e.g., a networked computer such as a PC or Mac™).

The memory 416 of a controller device may be configured to storecontroller application software and other data associated with the mediaplayback system 100 and a user of the system 100. The memory 416 may beloaded with one or more software components 414 executable by theprocessor 412 to achieve certain functions, such as facilitating useraccess, control, and configuration of the media playback system 100. Acontroller device communicates with other network devices over thenetwork interface 430, such as a wireless interface, as described above.

In one example, data and information (e.g., such as a state variable)may be communicated between a controller device and other devices viathe network interface 430. For instance, playback zone and zone groupconfigurations in the media playback system 100 may be received by acontroller device from a playback device, a network microphone device,or another network device, or transmitted by the controller device toanother playback device or network device via the network interface 406.In some cases, the other network device may be another controllerdevice.

Playback device control commands such as volume control and audioplayback control may also be communicated from a controller device to aplayback device via the network interface 430. As suggested above,changes to configurations of the media playback system 100 may also beperformed by a user using the controller device. The configurationchanges may include adding/removing one or more playback devices to/froma zone, adding/removing one or more zones to/from a zone group, forminga bonded or merged player, separating one or more playback devices froma bonded or merged player, among others.

The user interface(s) 440 of a controller device may be configured tofacilitate user access and control of the media playback system 100, byproviding controller interface(s) such as the controller interfaces 440a and 440 b shown in FIGS. 4A and 4B, respectively, which may bereferred to collectively as the controller interface 440. Referring toFIGS. 4A and 4B together, the controller interface 440 includes aplayback control region 442, a playback zone region 443, a playbackstatus region 444, a playback queue region 446, and a sources region448. The user interface 400 as shown is just one example of a userinterface that may be provided on a network device such as thecontroller device shown in FIG. 3 and accessed by users to control amedia playback system such as the media playback system 100. Other userinterfaces of varying formats, styles, and interactive sequences mayalternatively be implemented on one or more network devices to providecomparable control access to a media playback system.

The playback control region 442 (FIG. 4A) may include selectable (e.g.,by way of touch or by using a cursor) icons to cause playback devices ina selected playback zone or zone group to play or pause, fast forward,rewind, skip to next, skip to previous, enter/exit shuffle mode,enter/exit repeat mode, enter/exit cross fade mode. The playback controlregion 442 may also include selectable icons to modify equalizationsettings, and playback volume, among other possibilities.

The playback zone region 443 (FIG. 4B) may include representations ofplayback zones within the media playback system 100. The playback zonesregions may also include representation of zone groups, such as theDining Room+Kitchen zone group, as shown. In some embodiments, thegraphical representations of playback zones may be selectable to bringup additional selectable icons to manage or configure the playback zonesin the media playback system, such as a creation of bonded zones,creation of zone groups, separation of zone groups, and renaming of zonegroups, among other possibilities.

For example, as shown, a “group” icon may be provided within each of thegraphical representations of playback zones. The “group” icon providedwithin a graphical representation of a particular zone may be selectableto bring up options to select one or more other zones in the mediaplayback system to be grouped with the particular zone. Once grouped,playback devices in the zones that have been grouped with the particularzone will be configured to play audio content in synchrony with theplayback device(s) in the particular zone. Analogously, a “group” iconmay be provided within a graphical representation of a zone group. Inthis case, the “group” icon may be selectable to bring up options todeselect one or more zones in the zone group to be removed from the zonegroup. Other interactions and implementations for grouping andungrouping zones via a user interface such as the user interface 400 arealso possible. The representations of playback zones in the playbackzone region 443 (FIG. 4B) may be dynamically updated as playback zone orzone group configurations are modified.

The playback status region 444 (FIG. 4A) may include graphicalrepresentations of audio content that is presently being played,previously played, or scheduled to play next in the selected playbackzone or zone group. The selected playback zone or zone group may bevisually distinguished on the user interface, such as within theplayback zone region 443 and/or the playback status region 444. Thegraphical representations may include track title, artist name, albumname, album year, track length, and other relevant information that maybe useful for the user to know when controlling the media playbacksystem via the user interface 440.

The playback queue region 446 may include graphical representations ofaudio content in a playback queue associated with the selected playbackzone or zone group. In some embodiments, each playback zone or zonegroup may be associated with a playback queue containing informationcorresponding to zero or more audio items for playback by the playbackzone or zone group. For instance, each audio item in the playback queuemay comprise a uniform resource identifier (URI), a uniform resourcelocator (URL) or some other identifier that may be used by a playbackdevice in the playback zone or zone group to find and/or retrieve theaudio item from a local audio content source or a networked audiocontent source, possibly for playback by the playback device.

In one example, a playlist may be added to a playback queue, in whichcase information corresponding to each audio item in the playlist may beadded to the playback queue. In another example, audio items in aplayback queue may be saved as a playlist. In a further example, aplayback queue may be empty, or populated but “not in use” when theplayback zone or zone group is playing continuously streaming audiocontent, such as Internet radio that may continue to play untilotherwise stopped, rather than discrete audio items that have playbackdurations. In an alternative embodiment, a playback queue can includeInternet radio and/or other streaming audio content items and be “inuse” when the playback zone or zone group is playing those items. Otherexamples are also possible.

When playback zones or zone groups are “grouped” or “ungrouped,”playback queues associated with the affected playback zones or zonegroups may be cleared or re-associated. For example, if a first playbackzone including a first playback queue is grouped with a second playbackzone including a second playback queue, the established zone group mayhave an associated playback queue that is initially empty, that containsaudio items from the first playback queue (such as if the secondplayback zone was added to the first playback zone), that contains audioitems from the second playback queue (such as if the first playback zonewas added to the second playback zone), or a combination of audio itemsfrom both the first and second playback queues. Subsequently, if theestablished zone group is ungrouped, the resulting first playback zonemay be re-associated with the previous first playback queue, or beassociated with a new playback queue that is empty or contains audioitems from the playback queue associated with the established zone groupbefore the established zone group was ungrouped. Similarly, theresulting second playback zone may be re-associated with the previoussecond playback queue, or be associated with a new playback queue thatis empty, or contains audio items from the playback queue associatedwith the established zone group before the established zone group wasungrouped. Other examples are also possible.

With reference still to FIGS. 4A and 4B, the graphical representationsof audio content in the playback queue region 446 (FIG. 4B) may includetrack titles, artist names, track lengths, and other relevantinformation associated with the audio content in the playback queue. Inone example, graphical representations of audio content may beselectable to bring up additional selectable icons to manage and/ormanipulate the playback queue and/or audio content represented in theplayback queue. For instance, a represented audio content may be removedfrom the playback queue, moved to a different position within theplayback queue, or selected to be played immediately, or after anycurrently playing audio content, among other possibilities. A playbackqueue associated with a playback zone or zone group may be stored in amemory on one or more playback devices in the playback zone or zonegroup, on a playback device that is not in the playback zone or zonegroup, and/or some other designated device. Playback of such a playbackqueue may involve one or more playback devices playing back media itemsof the queue, perhaps in sequential or random order.

The sources region 448 may include graphical representations ofselectable audio content sources and selectable voice assistantsassociated with a corresponding VAS. The VASes may be selectivelyassigned. In some examples, multiple VASes, such as AMAZON's ALEXA® andanother voice service, may be invokable by the same network microphonedevice. In some embodiments, a user may assign a VAS exclusively to oneor more network microphone devices. For example, a user may assign thefirst VAS 160 to one or both of the NMDs 102 a and 102 b in the LivingRoom shown in FIG. 1, and a second VAS to the NMD 103 f in the Kitchen.Other examples are possible.

d. Example Audio Content Sources

The audio sources in the sources region 448 may be audio content sourcesfrom which audio content may be retrieved and played by the selectedplayback zone or zone group. One or more playback devices in a zone orzone group may be configured to retrieve for playback audio content(e.g., according to a corresponding URI or URL for the audio content)from a variety of available audio content sources. In one example, audiocontent may be retrieved by a playback device directly from acorresponding audio content source (e.g., a line-in connection). Inanother example, audio content may be provided to a playback device overa network via one or more other playback devices or network devices.

Example audio content sources may include a memory of one or moreplayback devices in a media playback system such as the media playbacksystem 100 of FIG. 1, local music libraries on one or more networkdevices (such as a controller device, a network-enabled personalcomputer, or a networked-attached storage (NAS), for example), streamingaudio services providing audio content via the Internet (e.g., thecloud), or audio sources connected to the media playback system via aline-in input connection on a playback device or network devise, amongother possibilities.

In some embodiments, audio content sources may be regularly added orremoved from a media playback system such as the media playback system100 of FIG. 1. In one example, an indexing of audio items may beperformed whenever one or more audio content sources are added, removedor updated. Indexing of audio items may involve scanning foridentifiable audio items in all folders/directory shared over a networkaccessible by playback devices in the media playback system, andgenerating or updating an audio content database containing metadata(e.g., title, artist, album, track length, among others) and otherassociated information, such as a URI or URL for each identifiable audioitem found. Other examples for managing and maintaining audio contentsources may also be possible.

e. Example Network Microphone Devices

FIG. 5A is a functional block diagram showing additional features of oneor more of the NMDs 103 in accordance with aspects of the disclosure.The network microphone device shown in FIG. 5A may include componentsthat are generally similar to certain components of network microphonedevices described above, such as the processor 212 (FIG. 1), networkinterface 230 (FIG. 2A), microphone(s) 224, and the memory 216. Althoughnot shown for purposes of clarity, a network microphone device mayinclude other components, such as speakers, amplifiers, signalprocessors, as discussed above.

The microphone(s) 224 may be a plurality of microphones arranged todetect sound in the environment of the network microphone device. In oneexample, the microphone(s) 224 may be arranged to detect audio from oneor more directions relative to the network microphone device. Themicrophone(s) 224 may be sensitive to a portion of a frequency range. Inone example, a first subset of the microphone(s) 224 may be sensitive toa first frequency range, while a second subset of the microphone(s) 224may be sensitive to a second frequency range. The microphone(s) 224 mayfurther be arranged to capture location information of an audio source(e.g., voice, audible sound) and/or to assist in filtering backgroundnoise. Notably, in some embodiments the microphone(s) 224 may have asingle microphone rather than a plurality of microphones.

A network microphone device may further include beam former components551, acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) components 552, voice activitydetector components 553, wake word detector components 554, speech/textconversion components 555 (e.g., voice-to-text and text-to-voice), andVAS selector components 556. In various embodiments, one or more of thecomponents 551-556 may be a subcomponent of the processor 512.

The beamforming and AEC components 551 and 552 are configured to detectan audio signal and determine aspects of voice input within the detectaudio, such as the direction, amplitude, frequency spectrum, etc. Forexample, the beamforming and AEC components 551 and 552 may be used in aprocess to determine an approximate distance between a networkmicrophone device and a user speaking to the network microphone device.In another example, a network microphone device may detective a relativeproximity of a user to another network microphone device in a mediaplayback system.

The voice activity detector activity components 553 are configured towork closely with the beamforming and AEC components 551 and 552 tocapture sound from directions where voice activity is detected.Potential speech directions can be identified by monitoring metricswhich distinguish speech from other sounds. Such metrics can include,for example, energy within the speech band relative to background noiseand entropy within the speech band, which is measure of spectralstructure. Speech typically has a lower entropy than most commonbackground noise.

The wake-word detector components 554 are configured to monitor andanalyze received audio to determine if any wake words are present in theaudio. The wake-word detector components 554 may analyze the receivedaudio using a wake word detection algorithm. If the wake-word detector554 detects a wake word, a network microphone device may process voiceinput contained in the received audio. Example wake word detectionalgorithms accept audio as input and provide an indication of whether awake word is present in the audio. Many first- and third-party wake worddetection algorithms are known and commercially available. For instance,operators of a voice service may make their algorithm available for usein third-party devices. Alternatively, an algorithm may be trained todetect certain wake-words.

In some embodiments, the wake-word detector 554 runs multiple wake worddetections algorithms on the received audio simultaneously (orsubstantially simultaneously). As noted above, different voice services(e.g. AMAZON's ALEXA®, APPLE's SIRI®, or MICROSOFT's CORTANA®) each usea different wake word for invoking their respective voice service. Tosupport multiple services, the wake word detector 554 may run thereceived audio through the wake word detection algorithm for eachsupported voice service in parallel.

The VAS selector components 556 are configured to detect for commandsspoken by the user within a voice input. The speech/text conversioncomponents 555 may facilitate processing by converting speech in thevoice input to text. In some embodiments, a network microphone devicemay include voice recognition software that is trained to a particularuser or a particular set of users associated with a household. Suchvoice recognition software may implement voice-processing algorithmsthat are tuned to specific voice profile(s). Tuning to specific voiceprofiles may require less computationally intensive algorithms thantraditional VASes, which typically sample from a broad base of users anddiverse requests that are not targeted to media playback systems

The VAS selector components 556 are also configured to determine ifcertain command criteria are met for particular command(s) detected in avoice input. Command criteria for a given command in a voice input maybe based, for example, on the inclusion of certain keywords within thevoice input. A keyword may be, for example, a word in the voice inputidentifying a particular device or group in the media playback system100. As used herein, the term “keyword” may refer to a single word(e.g., “Bedroom”) or a group of words (e.g., “the Living Room”).

In addition or alternately, command criteria for given command(s) mayinvolve detection of one or more control state and/or zone statevariables in conjunction with detecting the given command(s). Controlstate variables may include, for example, indicators identifying a levelof volume, a queue associated with one or more device(s), and playbackstate, such as whether devices are playing a queue, paused, etc. Zonestate variables may include, for example, indicators identifying which,if any, zone players are grouped. The VAS selector components 556 maystore in the memory 216 a set of command information, such as in a datatable 590, that contains a listing of commands and associated commandcriteria, which are described in greater detail below.

In some embodiments, one or more of the components 551-556 describedabove can operate in conjunction with the microphone(s) 224 to detectand store a user's voice profile, which may be associated with a useraccount of the media playback system 100. In some embodiments, voiceprofiles may be stored as and/or compared to variables stored in the setof command information 590, as described below. The voice profile mayinclude aspects of the tone or frequency of user's voice and/or otherunique aspects of the user such as those described in previouslyreferenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749.

In some embodiments, one or more of the components 551-556 describedabove can operate in conjunction with the microphone array 524 todetermine the location of a user in the home environment and/or relativeto a location of one or more of the NMDs 103. The location or proximityof a user may be detected and compared to a variable stored in thecommand information 590, as described below. Techniques for determiningthe location or proximity of a user may include or more techniquesdisclosed in previously referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/438,749, U.S. Pat. No. 9,084,058 filed Dec. 29, 2011, and titled“Sound Field Calibration Using Listener Localization,” and U.S. Pat. No.8,965,033 filed Aug. 31, 2012, and titled “Acoustic Optimization.” Eachof these applications is incorporated herein by reference in itsentirety.

FIG. 5B is a diagram of an example voice input in accordance withaspects of the disclosure. The voice input may be captured by a networkmicrophone device, such as by one or more of the NMDs 103 shown inFIG. 1. The voice input may include a wake word portion 557 a and avoice utterance portion 557 b (collectively “voice input 557”). In someembodiments, the wake word 557 a can be a known wake word, such as“Alexa,” which is associated with AMAZON's ALEXA®). In otherembodiments, the voice input 557 may not include a wake word.

In some embodiments, a network microphone device may output an audibleand/or visible response upon detection of the wake word portion 557 a.In addition or alternately, a network microphone device may output anaudible and/or visible response after processing a voice input and/or aseries of voice inputs (e.g., in the case of a multi-turn request).

The voice utterance portion 557 b may include, for example, one or morespoken commands 558 (identified individually as a first command 558 aand a second command 558 b) and one or more spoken keywords 559(identified individually as a first keyword 559 a and a second keyword559 b). In one example, the first command 557 a can be a command to playmusic, such as a specific song, album, playlist, etc. In this example,the keywords 559 may be one or words identifying one or more zones inwhich the music is to be played, such as the Living Room and the DiningRoom shown in FIG. 1. In some examples, the voice utterance portion 557b can include other information, such as detected pauses (e.g., periodsof non-speech) between words spoken by a user, as shown in FIG. 5B. Thepauses may demarcate the locations of separate commands, keywords, orother information spoke by the user within the voice utterance portion557 b.

In some embodiments, the media playback system 100 is configured totemporarily reduce the volume of audio content that it is playing whiledetecting the wake word portion 557 a. The media playback system 100 mayrestore the volume after processing the voice input 557, as shown inFIG. 5B. Such a process can be referred to as ducking, examples of whichare disclosed in previously referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/438,749.

f. Example Network and Remote Computing Systems

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing additional details of theremote computing device(s) 105 in FIG. 1. In various embodiments, theremote computing device(s) 105 may receive voice inputs from one or moreof the NMDs 103 over the WAN 107 shown in FIG. 1. For purposes ofillustration, selected communication paths of the voice input 557 (FIG.5B) are represented by arrows in FIG. 6. In one embodiment, the voiceinput 557 processed by the remote computing device(s) 105 may includethe voice utterance portion 557 b (FIG. 5B). In another embodiment, theprocessed voice input 557 may include both the voice utterance portion557 b and the wake word 557 a (FIG. 5B)

The remote computing device(s) 105 includes a system controller 612comprising one or more processors, an intent engine 602, and a memory616. The memory 616 may be a tangible computer-readable mediumconfigured to store instructions executable by the system controller 612and/or one or more of the playback, network microphone, and/orcontroller devices 102-104.

The intent engine 662 is configured to process a voice input anddetermine an intent of the input . In some embodiments, the intentengine 662 may be a subcomponent of the system controller 612. Theintent engine 662 may interact with one or more database(s), such as oneor more VAS database(s) 664, to process voice inputs. The VASdatabase(s) 664 may reside in the memory 616 or elsewhere, such as inmemory of one or more of the playback, network microphone, and/orcontroller devices 102-104. In some embodiments, the VAS database(s) 664may be updated for adaptive learning and feedback based on the voiceinput processing. The VAS database(s) 664 may store various user data,analytics, catalogs, and other information for NLU-related and/or otherprocessing.

The remote computing device(s) 105 may exchange various feedback,information, instructions, and/or related data with the variousplayback, network microphone, and/or controller devices 102-104 of themedia playback system 100. Such exchanges may be related to orindependent of transmitted messages containing voice inputs. In someembodiments, the remote computing device(s) 105 and the media playbacksystem 100 may exchange data via communication paths as described hereinand/or using a metadata exchange channel as described in previouslyreferenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749.

Processing of a voice input by devices of the media playback system 100may be carried out at least partially in parallel with processing of thevoice input by the remote computing device(s) 105. Additionally, thespeech/text conversion components 555 of a network microphone device mayconvert responses from the remote computing device(s) 105 to speech foraudible output via one or more speakers.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, theremote computing device(s) 105 carry out functions of the first VAS 160for the media playback system 100. FIG. 7A is schematic diagram of anexample network system 700 that comprises the first VAS 160. As shown,the remote computing device(s) 105 are coupled to the media playbacksystem 100 via the WAN 107 (FIG. 1) and/or a LAN 706 connected to theWAN 107. In this way, the various playback, network microphone, andcontroller devices 102-104 of the media playback system 100 maycommunicate with the remote computing device(s) 105 to invoke functionsof the first VAS 160.

The network system 700 further includes additional first remotecomputing device(s) 705 a (e.g., cloud servers) and second remotecomputing device(s) 705 b (e.g., cloud servers). The second remotecomputing device(s) 705 b may be associated with a media serviceprovider 767, such as SPOTIFY® or PANDORA®. In some embodiments, thesecond remote computing device(s) 705 b may communicate directly thecomputing device(s) of the first VAS 160. In addition or alternately,the second remote computing device(s) 705 b may communicate with themedia playback system 100 and/or other intervening remote computingdevice(s).

The first remote computing device(s) 705 a may be associated with asecond VAS 760. The second VAS 760 may be a traditional VAS providerassociated with, e.g., AMAZON's ALEXA®, APPLE's SIRI®, MICROSOFT'sCORTANA®, or another VAS provider. Although not shown for purposes ofclarity, the network computing system 700 may further include remotecomputing devices associated with one or more additional VASes, such asadditional traditional VASes. In such embodiments, media playback system100 may be configured to select the first VAS 160 over the second VAS760 as well as another VAS.

FIG. 7B is a message flow diagram illustrating various data exchanges inthe network computing system 700 of FIG. 7A. The media playback system100 captures a voice input via a network microphone device (block 771),such as via one or more of the NMDs 103 shown in FIG. 1. The mediaplayback system 100 may select an appropriate VAS based on commands andassociated command criteria in the set of command information 590(blocks 771-774), as described below. If the second VAS 760 is selected,the media playback system 100 may transmit one or messages 781 (e.g.,packets) containing the voice input to the second VAS 760 forprocessing.

If, on the other hand, the first VAS 160 is selected, the media playbacksystem 100 transmits one or more messages 782 (e.g., packets) containingthe voice input to the VAS 160. The media playback system 100 mayconcurrently transmit other information to the VAS 160 with themessage(s) 782. For example, the media playback system 100 may transmitdata over a metadata channel, as described in previously referenced U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/131,244.

The first VAS 160 may process the voice input in the message(s) 782 todetermine intent (block 775). Based on the intent, the VAS 160 may sendone or more response messages 783 (e.g., packets) to the media playbacksystem 100. In some instances, the response message(s) 783 may include apayload that directs one or more of the devices of the media playbacksystem 100 to execute instructions (block 776). For example, theinstructions may direct the media playback system 100 to play back mediacontent, group devices, and/or perform other functions described below.In addition or alternately, the response message(s) 783 from the VAS 160may include a payload with a request for more information, such as inthe case of multi-turn commands.

In some embodiments, the response message(s) 783 sent from the first VAS160 may direct the media playback system 100 to request media content,such as audio content, from the media service(s) 667. In otherembodiments, the media playback system 100 may request contentindependently from the VAS 160. In either case, the media playbacksystem 100 may exchange messages for receiving content, such as via amedia stream 784 comprising, e.g., audio content.

In some embodiments, the media playback system 100 may receive audiocontent from a line-in interface on a playback, network microphone, orother device over a local area network via a network interface. Exampleaudio content includes one or more audio tracks, a talk show, a film, atelevision show, a podcast, an Internet streaming video, among manypossible other forms of audio content. The audio content may beaccompanied by video (e.g., an audio track of a video) or the audiocontent may be content that is unaccompanied by video.

In some embodiments, the media playback system 100 and/or the first VAS160 may use voice inputs that result in successful (or unsuccessful)responses from the VAS for training and adaptive training and learning(blocks 777 and 778). Training and adaptive learning may enhance theaccuracy of voice processing by the media playback system 100 and or thefirst VAS 160. In one example, the intent engine 662 (FIG. 6) may updateand maintain training learning data in the VAS database(s) 664 for oneor more user accounts associated with the media playback system 100.

III. Example Method and System for Invoking a VAS

As discussed above, embodiments described herein may involve invokingthe first VAS 160. In one aspect, the first VAS 160 may provide enhancedcontrol features for the media playback system 100. In another aspect,the first VAS may provide an improved VAS experience for controlling themedia playback system 100 compared to other VASes, such as traditionalVASes, as discussed above.

In some embodiments, a traditional VAS, such as the second VAS 760 shownin FIG. 7B, may be invoked by the media playback system 100 to performrelatively rudimentary controls, such as relatively simpleplay/pause/skip functions. In some implementations, the second VAS 760may provide other services that may not be readily invokable via thefirst VAS 160. For example, in certain implementations a traditional VASmay provide voice-based Internet searching, while the first VAS 160 maynot.

FIG. 8 is an example flow diagram of a method 800 for invoking a VAS.The method 800 presents an embodiment of a method that can beimplemented within an operating environment involving, for example, themedia playback system 100 or another media playback system configured inaccordance with embodiments of the disclosure. In the example describedbelow, the method 800 involves selecting the first VAS 160 over thesecond VAS 760.

The method 800 may involve transmitting and receiving informationbetween various devices and systems as described herein and/or inpreviously referenced U.S. patent application Ser. No. 15/438,749. Forexample, the method may involve transmitting and receiving informationbetween one or more of the playback, network microphone, controller, andremote computing devices 102-104 of the playback system, the remotecomputing device(s) 705 b of the media service(s) 667, and/or the remotecomputing device(s) 705 a of the second VAS 670. Although the blocks inFIG. 8 are illustrated in sequential order, these blocks may also beperformed in parallel, and/or in a different order than those describedherein. Also, the various blocks may be combined into fewer blocks,divided into additional blocks, and/or removed based upon the desiredimplementation.

In addition, for the method 800 and other processes and methodsdisclosed herein, the flow diagrams show functionality and operation ofone possible implementation of present embodiments. In this regard, eachblock may represent a module, a segment, or a portion of program code,which includes one or more instructions executable by a processor forimplementing specific logical functions or steps in the process. Theprogram code may be stored on any type of computer readable medium, forexample, such as a storage device including a disk or hard drive. Thecomputer readable medium may include non-transitory computer readablemedium, for example, such as computer-readable media that stores datafor short periods of time like register memory, processor cache andRandom Access Memory (RAM). The computer readable medium may alsoinclude non-transitory media, such as secondary or persistent long termstorage, like read only memory (ROM), optical or magnetic disks,compact-disc read only memory (CD-ROM), for example. The computerreadable media may also be any other volatile or non-volatile storagesystems. The computer readable medium may be considered a computerreadable storage medium, for example, or a tangible storage device. Thecomputer readable medium may be comprised by one or more of the memoriesdescribed above with reference to the various playback, networkmicrophone, controller, and remote computing devices. In addition, forthe method 800 and other processes and methods disclosed herein, eachblock in FIG. 8 may represent circuitry that is wired to perform thespecific logical functions in the process.

In some embodiments, the method 800 may further involve receiving userinput for launching an application, receiving user and user accountinformation, determining system parameters, interacting with a musicservice, and/or interacting with a controller, such as for displaying,selecting, and entering system information. In various embodiments, themethod 800 may incorporate example methods and systems described inapplication Ser. No. 15/223,218 filed Jul. 29, 2016, and titled “VoiceControl of a Media Playback System,” which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety.

a. Causing a Set of Command Information Comprising a Listing of Commandsand Associated Criteria of the Commands to be Stored in Memory

At block 801, the method 800 involves storing a set of commandinformation, such as the set of command information 590 stored in thememory 216 of a network microphone device. Referring to FIG. 8B, anexample set of command information 890 may contain a listing of commands892. The set of command information 890 may be a data table or otherdata structure. The set of command information 890 may be stored, forexample, in the memory of one or more of the playback, controller,network microphone, and/or remote computing devices 102-105. In someembodiments, the set of command information 890 may be accessible viathe metadata exchange channel and/or any other communication pathbetween the media playback system and a remote computing system.

In the illustrated example, the set of commands 892 includes 1^(st)through n^(th) Commands. As an example, the 1^(st) Command may be acommand for initiating playback, such as when the user says “playmusic.” The 2^(nd) Command may be a control command, such as a transportcontrol command, for e.g., pausing, resuming, skipping, playback. Forexample, the 2^(nd) command may be a command involving a user asking to“skip to the next track in a song.” The 3^(rd) Command may be a zonetargeting command, such as command for grouping, bonding, and mergingplayback devices. For example, the 3^(rd) command may be a commandinvolving a user asking to “group the Living Room and the Dining Room.”

The commands described herein are examples and other commands arepossible. For example, FIGS. 9A-9C show tables with additional exampleplayback initiation, control, and zone targeting commands. As anadditional example, commands may include inquiry commands. An inquirycommand may involve, for example, a query by a user as to what audio iscurrently playing. For example, the user may speak an inquiry command of“Tell me what is playing in the Living Room.”

As further shown in FIG. 8B, the commands 892 are associated withcommand criteria also stored in the set of command data 890. Forexample, the 1^(st) Command is associated with one or more first commandCriteria_1, the 2^(nd) Command is associated with one or second commandCriteria_2, and the 3^(rd) Command is associated with one or more thirdcommand Criteria_3. The command criteria may involve determinationsrelating to certain variable instances. Variables instances may bestored with identifiers (e.g., tags), which may or may not be associatedwith a user account. Variable instances may be continuously,periodically, or aperiodically updated to include new custom names addedor removed by the user or associated with the user's account. A customname may be any name supplied by the user which may or might not alreadyexist in a database

Variables instances may be present in keywords in voice input;referenced as names and/or values stored in a state table; and/ordynamically stored and modified in a state table via one or more theplayback, network microphone, controller, and remote computing devices102-105. Example variable instances may include zone variable instances,control state variable instances, target variable instances, and othervariable instances. Zone variable instances may involve, for example,identifiers representing zones, zone groups, playback devices, networkmicrophone devices, bonded states, areas, etc., including thosedescribed above. Control state variables may involve, for example, acurrent control state of individual playback and network microphonedevices and/or multiple devices, such as information indicating devicesplaying music, volumes of the devices, queues stored on the devices,etc. Target variable instances may involve, for example, certain controlstate and/or advanced state information corresponding to a group ofdevices, bonded devices, and merged devices. Target variable variablesmay also correspond to a calibration state, such as equalizationsettings, of various devices in the media playback system 100.

Other variable instances are possible. For example, a media variableinstance may identify media content, such as audio content (e.g., aparticular track, album, artist, playlist, station, or genre of music).In some embodiments, media variables may be identified in response tosearching a database for audio or content desired by user. A mediavariable may be present in a voice input; referenced, maintained, andupdated in a state table; or referenced in query, as discussed above. Asanother example, certain variable instances may indicate a location orproximity of a user within a home environment, whether a user's voiceprofile is detected in a given voice input, whether a specific wake wordis detected, etc. Variable instances may include custom variableinstances.

In certain embodiments, at least some of the criteria stored in the setof command information 890 may include a scalar vector of variableinstances or other such set of variable instances. For example,Criteria_1 may include a vector that identifies zone variablesrepresenting the zones shown in the media playback system 100 of FIG. 1.Such a vector may include [Balcony, Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen,Office, Bedroom, Nick's Room]. In one embodiments, Criteria_1 may besatisfied if two or more of the zone variables within the vector aredetected as keywords in a voice input.

The set of command information 890 may also include other information,such as user-specific information 894 and custom information 896.User-specific information 894 may be associated with a user accountand/or a household identifier (HHI). Custom information 896 may include,for example, custom variables, such as custom zone names, customplaylists, and/or custom playlist names. For instance, “Nick's Faves”may be a custom playlist with a custom name created by the user.

b. Capturing a Voice Input

Referring back to FIG. 8A, at blocks 802 and 803, the method 800involves monitoring for and detecting a wake word in a voice input. Forinstance, the media playback system 100 may analyze received audiorepresenting voice input to determine if wake words are represented. Themedia playback system 100 may analyze received audio using one or morewake word detection algorithms, such as via a wake-word detectioncomponent, as discussed above.

At block 804, the method 800 involves capturing the voice inputfollowing detection of the wake word at blocks 802 and 803. In variousembodiments, the voice input may be captured via one or more of the NMDs103 of the playback system 100. As used herein, the terms “capture” or“capturing” can refer to a process that includes recording at least aportion of a voice input, such as a voice utterance following the wakeword. In some embodiments, the captured voice input may include the wakeword. In certain embodiments described below the terms “capture” or“capturing” can also refer to recording at least a portion of a voiceinput and converting the voice input to a particular format, such astext, using e.g., speech to text conversion.

c. Detecting One or More of the Commands within the Captured Voice Input

At blocks 805 and 806, the method 800 involves detecting one or morecommands 892 (FIG. 8B) within voice input captured at block 804. Invarious embodiments, the method 800 may detect commands by parsing voiceinput and determining if one of the command 892 has a syntax thatmatches a syntax found in the captured voice input. In this manner, themethod 800 may using the matching syntax to detect an intent of acommand in the voice input. The matching syntax may be a word, a groupof words, a phrase, etc. In one example command, the user may say “playThe Beatles in the Balcony and the Living Room.” In this example, themethod 800 may recognize the syntax to “play” as matching a syntax forthe 1^(st) playback initiation Command in the set of command information890. Additionally, the method 800 may recognize “The Beatles” as a mediavariable, and the “Balcony” and “Living Room” as zone variables.Accordingly, the syntax of the command may also be represented in termsof variable instances as follows: “Play [media variable] in [first zonevariable] and the [second zone variable].” A similar command may include“Let me hear [media variable] in [first zone variable] and the[second/group device variable].” “Let me hear” may be a cognate of the“play” intent, as discussed below.

In some embodiments, a user may speak a command that is accompanied byone zone variable instance or no zone variable instance. In one example,a user may give a voice input by simply saying “play some Beatles.” Insuch a case, the method 800 may determine an intent to “play someBeatles” in a default zone. In another case, the method 800 maydetermine an intent to “play some Beatles” on one or more playbackdevices based on other command criteria that may be satisfied for thecommand, such if the user's presence is detected in a particular zonewhile the user requests to play The Beatles. For example, the mediaplayback system 100 may playback some Beatles in the Living Room zoneshown in FIG. 1 if the voice input is detected by the RIGHT playbackdevice 102 a located in this zone.

Another example command may be a play next command which may cause aselected media content to be added to the top of a queue to be playednext in a zone. An example syntax for this command may be to “play[media variable] next.”

Another example of a command may be a move or transfer command which maymove or transfer currently playing music and/or the playback queue of azone from one zone to another. For example, a user may speak the voiceinput of “Move music to [zone variable]” where the command word “move”or “transfer” may correspond to an intent to move playback state toanother zone. As a related example, the intent of moving music maycorrespond to two media playback system commands. The two commands maybe to group a first zone with a second zone and then to remove thesecond zone from the group to in effect transfer the state of the secondzone to the first zone.

The intent for commands and variable instances that may be detected invoice input may be based on any of number predefined syntaxes that maybe associated with a user's intent (e.g., play, pause, adding to queue,grouping, other transport controls, controls available via, e.g., thecontrol devices 104). In some implementations, processing of commandsand associated variable instances may be based on predetermined “slots”in which command(s) and/or variable(s) are expected to be specified inthe syntax. In these and other implementations, sets of words orvocabulary used for determining user intent may be updated in responseto user customizations and preferences, feedback, and adaptive learning,as discussed above.

In some embodiments, different words, syntaxes, and/or phrases used fora command may be associated with the same intent. For example, includingthe command word “play,” “listen,” or “hear” in a voice input maycorrespond to a cognate reflecting the same intent that the mediaplayback system play back media content.

FIGS. 9A-9C show further examples of cognates. For instance, thecommands in the left-hand side of the table 900 may have certaincognates represented in the right-hand side of the table. Referring toFIG. 9A, for example, the “play” command in the left-hand column has thesame intent as the cognate phrases in the right-hand column, including“break it down,” “let's jam”, “bust it.” In various embodiments,commands and cognates may be added, removed, or edited in the table 900.For example, commands and cognates may be added, removed, or edited inresponse to user customizations and preferences, feedback, training, andadaptive learning, as discussed above. FIGS. 9B and 9C show examplescognates related to control and zone targeting, respectively.

In some embodiments, variable instances may have cognates that arepredefined in a manner similar to cognates for commands. For example, a“Balcony” zone variable in the media playback system 100 may have thecognate “Outside” representing the same zone variable. As anotherexample, the “Living Room” zone variable may have the cognates “LivingArea”, “TV Room,” “Family Room,” etc.

d. Determining that the One or More Commands Meet Corresponding Criteriain the

Set of Command Information

Referring to FIGS. 8A and 8B together, at block 807, the method 800involves determining that the one or more commands detected in block 806meet corresponding command criteria in the set of command information890. Referring to FIG. 8B, for example, if the 1^(st) command isdetected, the method 800 will determine if the 1^(st) command meets theCriteria 1; if the 2^(nd) Command is detected, the method 800 willdetermine if the command meets Criteria 2; and so on.

A command may be compared to multiple sets of command criteria. In someembodiments, certain sets of criteria may be associated with logicaloperators. For example, the 3^(rd) Command is compared to commandCriteria_2 and command Criteria 3. These commands joined by a logicalAND operator. As such, the 3^(rd) Command requires two sets of criteriato be met. By contrast, the n^(th) Command is associated with criteria(Criteria_x, Criteria_y, and Criteria_z) that are joined by logical ORoperators. In this case, the n^(th) Command must satisfy only one of thesets of command criteria of this command. Various combinations oflogical operators, including XOR operators, are possible for determiningif a command satisfies certain command criteria.

In some embodiments, command criteria may determine if a voice inputincludes more than one command. For example, a voice input with acommand to “play [media variable]” may be accompanied by a secondcommand to “also play in [zone variable].” In this example, the mediaplayback system 100 may recognize “play” as one command and recognize“also play” as command criteria that is satisfied by the inclusion ofthe latter command. In some embodiments, when the above example commandsare spoken together in the same voice input this may correspond to agrouping intent.

In similar embodiments, the voice input may include two commands orphrases which are spoken in sequence. The method 800 may recognize thatsuch commands or phrases in sequence may be related. For example, theuser may provide the voice input “play some classical music” followed byin “the Living Room” and the “Dining Room,” which is an inferentialcommand to group the playback devices in the Living Room and the DiningRoom.

In some embodiments, the media playback system 100 may detect forpause(s) of a limited duration (e.g., 1 to 2 seconds) when processingwords or phrases in sequence. In some implementations, the pause may beintentionally made by the user to demarcate between commands and phrasesto facilitate voice processing of a relatively longer chain of commandsand information. The pause may have a predetermined duration sufficientfor capturing the chain of commands and information without causing themedia playback system 100 to idle back to wake word monitoring at block802. In one aspect, a user may use such pauses to execute multiplecommands without having to re-utter a wake word for each desired commandto be executed.

e. In Response to the Determining, Selecting the First VAS and ForegoingSelection of the other VAS and Processing the One or More Commands Viathe First VAS

A command that satisfies certain predetermined command criteria willcause the media playback system 100 to invoke the first VAS 160, whilecommands that do not satisfy predetermined criteria may cause the mediaplayback system 100 to invoke another VAS or to not invoke a VAS at all.The example method 800 involves sending a voice input that is determinedto satisfy the command criteria of a given command in the voice point tothe VAS 160, as shown at blocks 807 and 808, and sending the voice inputto another VAS when the given command does not satisfy the criteria, asshown at block 809.

At block 810, the method involves 800 receiving and processing aresponse from the VAS that received the voice input at block 808. In oneembodiment, processing the response from the VA may include processingan instruction from the VAS to execute the command(s) in a voice input,such as playback, control, zone targeting, and other commands discussedabove. In some embodiments, a remote computing device may be directed toinitiate or control playback of content associated with media variables,which may be included in the initial voice input or be the result of adatabase search.

In some embodiments, processing the response in block 810 may causemedia content to be retrieved. In one embodiment, media variables may beprovided to the media playback system 100 as results from a databasesearch for media content. In some embodiments, the media playback system100 may directly retrieve media content from one or more media services.In other embodiments, the VAS may automatically retrieve media contentin conjunction with processing a voice input received at block 800. Invarious embodiments, media variables may be communicated over themetadata exchange channel and/or any other communication pathestablished between the media playback system 100. Such communicationsmay initiate content streaming, as discussed above with reference toFIG. 7B.

In some embodiments, a database search may return results based on mediavariables detected in the voice input. For example, the database searchmay return an artist who has an album named the same as a mediavariable, the album name which matches or is similar to the mediavariable, a track named the media variable, a radio station of the mediavariable, a playlist named the media variable, a streaming serviceprovider identifier of content related to the media variable and/or theraw speech-to-text conversion results. Using the example of “AmericanPie,” the search results may return the artist “Don McLean,” thealbum(s) named “American Pie,” track(s) named “American Pie,” radiostation(s) named “American Pie” (e.g., identifier for Pandora radiostation for “American Pie”), a music service (e.g., streaming musicservice such as SPOTIFY® or PANDORA®) track identifier for the track“American Pie” (e.g., SPOTIFY® track identifier for “American Pie”, URI,and/or URL) and/or the raw speech-to-text result of “American Pie.”

In some embodiments, the method 800 may involve updating playback queuesstored on the playback devices in response to the change in a playlistor playback queue stored on a cloud network, such that the portion ofthe playback queue matches a portion or entirety of the playlist orplayback queue in cloud network.

In response to causing an action in the media playback system 100, themethod 800 may involve updating and/or storing information relating tothe action at block 800. For example, one or more control state, zonestate, zone identifiers or other information may be updated at block800. Other information that may updated may include, for instance,information identifying specific playback device(s) that are currentlyplaying a particular media item and/or a particular media item was addedto the queue stored on the playback device(s).

In some embodiments, processing the response in block 810 may lead to adetermination that the VAS needs additional information and audiblyprompting a user for this information, as shown at blocks 811 and 812.For instance, the method 800 may prompt the user for additionalinformation when executing a multi-turn command. In such cases, themethod 800 may return to block 804 to capture additional voice input.

While the methods and systems have been described herein with respect tomedia content (e.g., music content, video content), the methods andsystems described herein may be applied to a variety of content whichmay have associated audio that can be played by a media playback system.For example, pre-recorded sounds which might not be part of a musiccatalog may be played in response to a voice input. One example is thevoice input “what does a nightingale sound like?” The networkedmicrophone system's response to this voice input might not be musiccontent with an identifier and may instead be a short audio clip. Themedia playback system may receive information associated with playingback the short audio clip (e.g., storage address, link, URL, file) and amedia playback system command to play the short audio clip. Otherexamples are possible including podcasts, news clips, notificationsounds, alarms, etc.

IV. Example Implementations of Voice Control for a Media Playback System

FIGS. 10A-20B are schematic diagrams showing various examples of voiceinputs processed by the media playback system 100 and control interfaceswhich may represent states of the media playback system 100 before orafter processing a voice input. As described below, command criteriaassociated with particular voice command(s) within voice input mayprovide enhanced voice control for a VAS, such as the VAS 160 discussedabove. Voice input may be received by one or more of the NMDs 103, whichmay or may not be incorporated into one of the playback devices 102, asdiscussed above.

Although not shown for purpose of clarity, the voice input in thevarious examples below may be preceded by a wake word, such as “AMAZON'sALEXA® or other wake words, as described above. In one aspect, the samewake word may be used to initiate voice capturing of a voice input thatis to be sent to either the first VAS or the second VAS, such as atraditional VAS. In such cases, the user speaking the voice utterancemay be unaware that a selection of one VAS over another is occurringbehind the scenes. In certain embodiments, a unique wake word, such as“Hey Sonos,” may be spoken by the user to invoke the first VAS withoutfurther consideration. In this case, the playback system 100 may avertthe step of determining to select the first VAS over another VAS.

In one aspect, command criteria can be configured to group devices. Insome embodiments, such command criteria may simultaneously initiateplayback when the voice input involves a media variable and/or affecteddevices(s) are associated with a playback queue. FIG. 10A, for example,shows a user speaking a voice input to the NMD 103 a to “play TheBeatles in the living room and the balcony,” and the controllerinterface in FIG. 10B shows the resulting grouping of the Living Roomand the Balcony. In another example, the user may speak a specifictrack, playlist, mood, or other information for initiating mediaplayback as described herein.

The voice input in FIG. 10A includes a syntax structure of “play [mediavariable] in the [first zone variable] and the [second zone variable].”In this example, the command to play meets command criteria that requiretwo or more zone variables as keywords in the voice input. In someembodiments, the Living Room's playback devices 102 a, 102 b, 102 j, and102 k may remain in a bonded media playback device arrangement beforeand after speaking the voice input shown in FIG. 10A.

In some embodiments, the order in which the zone variables are spokenmay dictate which of the playback device is designated at the “grouphead.” For example, when the user speaks a voice input that contains thekeyword Living Room followed by the keyword Balcony, this order maydictate that the Living Room is to be the group head. The group head maybe stored as a zone variable in the set of command information 890. Thegroup head may be a handle for referring to a group playback devices.When the user speaks a voice input that contains the group handle, themedia playback system 100 may detect an intent referring to all of thedevice(s) grouped with the Living Room. In this manner, the user neednot speak keywords for each zone in a group of devices when collectivelycontrolling the devices. In a related embodiment, the user may speak avoice input to change the group head to another device or zone. Forexample, the user may change the group head of the Living Room zone tobe the Balcony (in such a case the interface may show the order of thegroup as Balcony+Living Room rather than Living Room+Balcony).

In an alternate example, FIG. 10C shows a user speaking a voice input“to play The Beatles,” but omitting the other keywords in the voiceinput of FIG. 10B. In this example, the voice input may be sent toanother VAS if the command does not satisfy any criteria in the set ofcommand information 890, as discussed above.

In another example, a voice input “to play The Beatles” that omits theabove keywords may be nevertheless sent to the first VAS 160 if othercommand criteria are met for the command. Other such command criteriamay include, for example, criteria involving zone variables, controlstate variables, target variables, and/or other variables. In oneaspect, a variable instance may be proximity (e.g., a calculated orotherwise determined distance) of the user to a network microphonedevice. For example, the voice input of FIG. 10C may be sent to thefirst VAS 160 when the user is detected to be in the vicinity (e.g.,with a predetermined radius r₁) of the NMD 103. A determination ofvicinity may be based, for example, on the signal strength of a voiceinput source. In another aspect, the voice input of FIG. 10C may be sentto the first VAS 160 when a voice profile of the user is detected, whichmay be independent of whether the user's proximity is detected.

In yet another aspect, proximity and/or other command criteria mayfacilitate resolving voice inputs that may not be readily processed by atraditional VAS. For example, a user that speaks the voice input to“turn up the Balcony,” as shown in FIG. 11A may not be resolvable by atraditional VAS because the Balcony includes an illumination device 108that may bear the same name. Referring to FIG. 1, the first VAS 160 mayresolve such conflicting device names by determining whether the user isin the vicinity of the playback device 102 c and/or whether the Balconyis currently playing based on an associated control variable. In arelated aspect, the first VAS 160 may determine to increase the volumeof the playback device 102 c in the Balcony when the user is in itsvicinity, but not the volume in the Living Room where the user is notlocated. In such a case, the media playback system 100 may increase thevolume in the Balcony, but not the Living Room, as shown in FIG. 11B.

Similarly, the first VAS 160 may resolve conflicting commands fordevices with similar command naming conventions. For instance, thethermostat 110 in the Dining Room shown in FIG. 1 may be programmed bythe user speaking a voice input to “set” by the user to a certaintemperature (e.g., a level between 60 and 85 degrees). Likewise, theuser may speak a voice input to “set” the Dining Room zone to a certainvolume level (e.g., a level between 0 and 100 percent). In one example,a user that speaks the voice input “set the Dining Room to 75” may beresolved by the first VAS 160 because the it detects that the DiningRoom zone is currently playing based on the command criteria stored inthe set of command information 890. A traditional VAS, by contrast, maynot be able to determine whether it is to change the volume of theDining Room zone to level 75 or to set the temperature of the DiningRoom thermostat to 75.

In various embodiments, voice inputs may be processed in conjunctionwith other inputs from the user via the individual playback, networkmicrophone devices, and controller devices 102-104. For instance, a usermay independently control the group volume, the individual volumes,playback state, etc. using the soft buttons and control features on theinterface shown in FIG. 11B. Additionally, in the example of FIG. 11B,the user can press the soft button labeled “Group” to access anotherinterface for manually grouping and ungrouping devices. In one aspect,providing multiple ways of interacting the media playback system 100 viavoice inputs, controller inputs, and manual device inputs may provideseamless continuity of a control for an enhanced user experience.

As another grouping/ungrouping example, a voice input to “play BobMarley in the Balcony, may cause the Balcony to automatically ungroupfrom the Living Room. In such a case, the Balcony may play Bob Marleyand the Living Room may continue to play The Beatles. Alternately, theLiving Room may cease playback if the command criteria dictate such ifthe Living Room is no longer a group head of a group of playbackdevices. In another embodiment, the command criteria may dictate thatthe devices do not automatically ungroup in response to playbackinitiation commands.

Command criteria may be configured to move or transfer currently playingmusic and/or the playback queue of a zone from one zone to another. Forexample, a user may speak the voice input of “move music from the LivingRoom to the Dining Room,” as shown in FIG. 12A. The request to movemusic may move the music playing in the Living Room zone to the DiningRoom, as shown in the controller interface of FIG. 12B. In a relatedexample, the user may move music to the Dining Room by speaking thevoice input of “move music here” directly to the NMD 103 f near theDining Room shown in FIG. 1. In this case, the user does not expresslyrefer to the Dining Room, but the VAS 160 may infer the intent based onthe user's proximity to the Dining Room. In related embodiments, the VAS160 may determine to move the music to the Dining Room rather thananother adjacent room (such as the Kitchen) if it determines that theNMD 103 f is bonded to the playback device 102 l in the Dining Room. Inanother example, the playback system 100 may infer information frommetadata of currently playing content. In one such example, the user mayspeak “Move ‘Let it Be’ (or ‘The Beatles’) to the Dining Room,” whichidentifies the particular music to move to the desired playback zone(s)and/or zone group(s). In this way, the media playback system candistinguish between content that may be actively playing and/or queuedfor playback in other playback zone(s) and/or zone group(s) fordetermining which of the content to transfer.

In yet another example, all the devices associated with a group head,such as the Living Room, may cease playback upon moving the music fromthe group head to the Dining Room. In a related example, the Living Roomzone may lose its designation as a group head when music is moved awayfrom it.

Command criteria may be configured to add devices to existing groupsusing voice input commands. For example, as shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B,a user may add the Living Room zone back to form a group with DiningRoom zone by speaking the voice input of “add Living Room to DiningRoom.” In related embodiments, the user may add the Living Room byspeaking the voice input of “play here, too” directly to the NMD 103 ain the Living Room zone shown in FIG. 1. In this case, the user may notexpressly refer to the living room in the voice input, but the VAS 160may infer that the Living Room zone is to be added based on the user'sproximity. In another example, if one were to assume that a listener isin the Dining Room when he or she has this intent, he or she may speakthe command “add the living room.” The dining room target in this casemay be implied by the input device's containing room.

In yet another example, the user may indicate in a voice input which ofthe Living Room and the Dining Room is to be the group head, or the VAS160 may request the user to designate the group head.

As another example of adding or forming groups, the user may instantiatea group using a voice input with a keyword associated with a custom zonevariable. For example, the user may create a custom zone variable forthe Front Area discussed above. The user may instantiate the Front Areagroup by speaking a voice input such as “play Van Halen in the FrontArea,” as shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B. The previous Dining Room groupshown in FIG. 13B may be supplanted in response to the voice input shownin FIG. 14A.

Command criteria may be configured to remove devices to existing groupsusing voice input commands. For example, the user may speak the voiceinput of “drop the Balcony” to remove the Balcony from the “Front Area”group, as shown in FIGS. 15A and 15B. As another example, the command“stop/remove” on balcony may do the same. Other example cognates arepossible, as discussed above. In yet another example, the user may speakdirectly to the NMD 103 c in the Balcony shown in FIG. 1 to achieve thesame result, such as by saying “stop here” or “stop in this room,”assuming that the user is on the balcony.

Command criteria may be configured to select audio content sources andimplement related features. For example, FIG. 16A shows a user speakinga voice input to the NMD 103 a that says, “I'd like watch TV.” InResponse, the media playback system 100 switches an audio content sourcefrom a music source to a TV source, as shown in FIG. 16B. In someembodiments, instructing the media playback system 100 to play the TVsource may automatically ungroup the Living Room from other zones. Forexample, in FIG. 16B, Van Halen continue to play in the Dining Room andthe Kitchen while the Living Room is switched to the TV source. In someinstances, the user may subsequently speak commands to play the TVsource in other zones in the home environment by grouping, as describedabove.

In related embodiments, the media playback system 100 may store stateinformation indicating when the Living Room is connected to the TVsource. When the Living Room is in this state, command criteria maydictate that voice commands related to the TV source may be implementedby the VAS, such as the source commands shown in FIG. 9B (e.g., enhancespeech, turn on quiet mode, etc.).

Command criteria may be configured to bond devices. For example, FIG.17A shows a user speaking a voice input that says, “I'd like to watchthe front TV.” In response, the VAS 160 may determine based on thecommand criteria that the Front playback device 102 b in FIG. 1 toseparate it from the Living Room zoon and form a TV zone, as shown inFIG. 16B. In a related example, a user may speak the voice inputdirectly to the NMD 103 b of the Front playback device 102 b to unbondthis device. The remaining bonded devices in the living room, namely theRight, Left, and SUB devices 102 a, 102 j, and 102 k may cease playingmusic. The control interface may also display these devices as no longerpart of the Living Room zone.

As another example of boding, a user may form a different bondedarrangement with the remaining devices in the living room area afterseparating the Front playback device 102 b. For example, the user mayform a listening zone, by speaking the voice input of “play Bob Marleyon my satellites and sub and create a listening zone,” as shown in FIGS.18A and 18B. The term “satellites” may be a custom zone variable thatrefers to the Right playback device 102 a and the Left playback device102 k. The voice input in FIG. 18A also initiates playback of Bob Marleyin the newly formed listening zone. In the illustrated example, bondingoperations in FIGS. 17A-18B did not interrupt playback of Van Halen inthe Dining Room and Kitchen zones, as further shown in the controllerinterface of FIG. 18B.

Command criteria may be configured to pair/bond devices. For example,FIG. 17A shows a multi-turn command in which the user speaks a voiceinput to “stereo-pair the Dining Room and the Kitchen.” In this example,the VAS instructs one or more of the NMDs 103 to prompt the user andinquires whether the Dining Room zone is to be the left channel. If theuser confirms the Dining Room as the right channel, the Kitchen zonewill be the right channel. If the user indicates that the Dining Room isnot to be the right channel, the Dining Room may default to being theleft channel and the Kitchen zone will be the right channel. Whenbonded, one of the Dining Room and the Kitchen may be assigned as agroup head. The VAS may prompt the user to designate a name for thebonded devices, including a unique name, such as “Cocina,” as shown inFIG. 19B. The Cocina zone may resume playback of Van Halen, which mayhave been transferred from a playback queue of either of the formerDining Room and Kitchen zones.

In related embodiments, bonding and merging devices can cause the VAS toinitiate multi-turn or other commands for calibrating playback devices,as shown in FIGS. 20A and 20B. In one example, the VAS 160 may continuethe multi-turn command sequence in FIG. 19A after pairing the DiningRoom and Kitchen zones. In some embodiments, the command criteria mayrequire that detection of the user operating one of the controllerdevices 103 before initiating calibration. In this way, the VAS 160 mayready calibration software, such as SONOS′ TRUEPLAY® software forcalibration, as shown in FIG. 20B.

VII. Conclusion

The description above discloses, among other things, various examplesystems, methods, apparatus, and articles of manufacture including,among other components, firmware and/or software executed on hardware.It is understood that such examples are merely illustrative and shouldnot be considered as limiting. For example, it is contemplated that anyor all of the firmware, hardware, and/or software aspects or componentscan be embodied exclusively in hardware, exclusively in software,exclusively in firmware, or in any combination of hardware, software,and/or firmware. Accordingly, the examples provided are not the onlyway(s) to implement such systems, methods, apparatus, and/or articles ofmanufacture.

(Feature 1) A method of invoking a first voice assistant service (VAS)for a media playback system, the method comprising: causing a set ofcommand information comprising a listing of commands and associatedcommand criteria to be stored in memory; capturing a voice input via atleast one microphone of a network microphone device; detecting inclusionof one or more of the commands within the voice input; determining thatthe one or more commands meets corresponding command criteria within theset of command information; and in response to the determining,selecting the first (VAS) and foregoing selection of a second VAS, (ii)sending the voice input to the first VAS, (iii) after sending the voiceinput, receiving a response to the voice input from the first VAS.

(Feature 2) The method of feature 1, wherein he media playback systemcomprises a plurality of playback devices, and wherein the one or morecommands includes a command to group two or more of the playback devicesand initiate playback of audio content on a group comprising the two ormore playback devices.

(Feature 3) The method of feature 2 wherein the determining comprisesdetecting inclusion of one or more keywords in the voice input, whereinthe one or more keywords comprises at least one of (i) a first keywordassociated with one of the two or more playback devices and a secondkeyword associated with another one of the two or more playback devicesand (ii) the group comprising the two or more playback devices.

(Feature 4) The method of feature 2, wherein one of the two or moreplayback devices comprises the network microphone device.

(Feature 5) The method of feature 1, wherein the one or more commandsare directed to the media playback system, and wherein the functionsfurther comprise processing the one or more commands via the mediaplayback system based on the response from the first VAS.

(Feature 6) The method of feature 5, wherein the one or more commandscomprise at least one of a playback command and a transport controlcommand.

(Feature 7) The method of feature 1, wherein the voice input is firstvoice input, and wherein the functions further comprise outputting anaudible prompt based on the response from the first VAS.

(Feature 8) The method of feature 1, wherein the voice input is firstvoice input, and wherein the functions further comprise outputting anaudible prompt for a second voice input based on the response from thefirst VAS.

(Feature 9) The method of feature 8, wherein the media playback systemcomprises a plurality of playback devices, wherein the one or morecommands comprises a command to pair two or more of the playbackdevices, wherein the audible prompt comprises a request to assign atleast one of the two or more of the playback devices to an audiochannel, and wherein the second voice input includes a selection of atleast one of the two or more of the playback devices.

(Feature 10) The method of feature 8 wherein the media playback systemcomprises one or more playback devices, and wherein the audible promptcomprises a request to calibrate equalization settings of one or more ofthe playback devices.

(Feature 11) The method of feature 1, wherein the determining comprisesdetecting a presence of a voice input source.

(Feature 12) The method of feature 11 wherein detecting the presencecomprises detecting a direction at which the voice input is received bythe network microphone device from the voice input source.

(Feature 13) The method of feature 11, wherein detecting the presencecomprises detecting a distance between the network microphone device andthe voice input source.

(Feature 14) The method of feature, wherein the determining comprisesdetecting use of a controller device.

(Feature 15) The method of feature 1, wherein the determining comprisesdetecting a voice profile of a voice input source.

(Feature 16) The method of feature 1, wherein the one or more commandsare one or more first commands, and wherein the determining comprisesdetecting one or more second commands within the voice input.

(Feature 17) The method of feature 16, wherein the determining furthercomprises detecting at least one pause within the voice input betweenthe one or more first commands and the one or more second commands.

The specification is presented largely in terms of illustrativeenvironments, systems, procedures, steps, logic blocks, processing, andother symbolic representations that directly or indirectly resemble theoperations of data processing devices coupled to networks. These processdescriptions and representations are typically used by those skilled inthe art to most effectively convey the substance of their work to othersskilled in the art. Numerous specific details are set forth to provide athorough understanding of the present disclosure. However, it isunderstood to those skilled in the art that certain embodiments of thepresent disclosure can be practiced without certain, specific details.In other instances, well known methods, procedures, components, andcircuitry have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring aspects of the embodiments. Accordingly, the scope of thepresent disclosure is defined by the appended claims rather than theforgoing description of embodiments.

When any of the appended claims are read to cover a purely softwareand/or firmware implementation, at least one of the elements in at leastone example is hereby expressly defined to include a tangible,non-transitory medium such as a memory, DVD, CD, Blu-ray, and so on,storing the software and/or firmware.

I/We claim:
 1. A network microphone device of a media playback system,comprising: a processor; at least one microphone; and tangiblecomputer-readable memory having instructions stored thereon that whenexecuted by the processor cause the network microphone device to performfunctions for a media playback system, the functions comprising: causinga set of command information comprising a listing of commands andassociated command criteria to be stored in memory; capturing a voiceinput via the at least one microphone; detecting inclusion of one ormore of the commands within the voice input; determining that the one ormore commands meets corresponding command criteria associated with theone or more commands within the set of command information; and inresponse to the determining, selecting a first voice assistant service(VAS) and foregoing selection of a second VAS, (ii) sending the voiceinput to the first VAS, (iii) and after sending the voice input,receiving a response to the voice input from the first VAS.
 2. Thenetwork microphone device of claim 1, wherein the media playback systemcomprises a plurality of playback devices, and wherein the one or morecommands includes a command to group two or more of the playback devicesand initiate playback of audio content on a group comprising the two ormore playback devices.
 3. The network microphone device of claim 2,wherein the determining comprises detecting inclusion of one or morekeywords in the voice input, wherein the one or more keywords comprisesat least one of (i) a first keyword associated with one of the two ormore playback devices and a second keyword associated with another oneof the two or more playback devices and (ii) the group comprising thetwo or more playback devices.
 4. The network microphone device of claim2, wherein one of the two or more playback devices comprises the networkmicrophone device.
 5. The network microphone device of claim 1, whereinthe one or more commands are directed to the media playback system, andwherein the functions further comprise processing the one or morecommands via the media playback system based on the response from thefirst VAS.
 6. The network microphone device of claim 5, wherein the oneor more commands comprise at least one of a playback command and atransport control command.
 7. The network microphone device of claim 1,wherein the voice input is first voice input, and wherein the functionsfurther comprise outputting an audible prompt based on the response fromthe first VAS.
 8. The network microphone device of claim 1, wherein thevoice input is first voice input, and wherein the functions furthercomprise outputting an audible prompt for a second voice input based onthe response from the first VAS.
 9. The network microphone device ofclaim 8, wherein the media playback system comprises a plurality ofplayback devices, wherein the one or more commands comprises a commandto pair two or more of the playback devices, wherein the audible promptcomprises a request to assign at least one of the two or more of theplayback devices to an audio channel, and wherein the second voice inputincludes a selection of at least one of the two or more of the playbackdevices.
 10. The network microphone device of claim 8, wherein the mediaplayback system comprises one or more playback devices, and wherein theaudible prompt comprises a request to calibrate equalization settings ofone or more of the playback devices.
 11. The network microphone deviceof claim 1, wherein the determining comprises detecting a presence of avoice input source.
 12. The network microphone device of claim 11,wherein detecting the presence comprises detecting a direction at whichthe voice input is received by the network microphone device from thevoice input source.
 13. The network microphone device of claim 11,wherein detecting the presence comprises detecting a distance betweenthe network microphone device and the voice input source.
 14. Thenetwork microphone device of claim 1, wherein the determining comprisesdetecting use of a controller device.
 15. The network microphone deviceof claim 1, wherein the determining comprises detecting a voice profileof a voice input source.
 16. The network microphone device of claim 1,wherein the one or more commands are one or more first commands, andwherein the determining comprises detecting one or more second commandswithin the voice input.
 17. The network microphone device of claim 16,wherein the determining further comprises detecting at least one pausewithin the voice input between the one or more first commands and theone or more second commands.
 18. A method of invoking a first voiceassistant service (VAS) for a media playback system, the methodcomprising: causing a set of command information comprising a listing ofcommands and associated command criteria to be stored in memory;capturing a voice input via at least one microphone of a networkmicrophone device; detecting inclusion of one or more of the commandswithin the voice input; determining that the one or more commands meetscorresponding command criteria associated with the one or more commandswithin the set of command information; and in response to thedetermining, selecting a first voice assistant service (VAS) andforegoing selection of a second VAS, (ii) sending the voice input to thefirst VAS, (iii) and after sending the voice input, receiving a responseto the voice input from the first VAS.
 19. The method of claim 18,wherein the media playback system comprises a plurality of playbackdevices, wherein the one or more commands includes a command to grouptwo or more of the playback devices and initiate playback of audiocontent on a group comprising the two or more playback devices, whereinthe determining comprises detecting inclusion of one or more keywords inthe voice input, wherein the one or more keywords comprises at least oneof (i) a first keyword associated with one of the two or more playbackdevices and a second keyword associated another one of the two or moreplayback devices and (ii) the group comprising the two or more playbackdevices.
 20. A tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable media havingstored therein instructions executable by one or more processors tocause a network microphone device to perform operations in a mediaplayback system, the operations comprising: causing a set of commandinformation comprising a listing of commands and associated commandcriteria to be stored in memory; capturing a voice input via at leastone microphone of the network microphone device; detecting one or moreof the commands within the captured voice input; determining that theone or more commands meets one or more corresponding criteria within theset of command information; and in response to the determining,selecting a first voice assistant service (VAS) and foregoing selectionof a second VAS, (ii) sending the voice input to the first VAS, (iii)after sending the voice input, processing a response to the voice inputfrom the first VAS.